Trump’s Own State Department Had No Idea He Accepted Meeting With Kim Jong Un

Even as Donald Trump accepted an invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his own State Department was apparently completely in the dark about the decision.

According to AP reporter Josh Lederman, it’s not clear whether Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “was involved in or aware of any of this” before it went public just hours ago.

In fact, Tillerson was likely sleeping when Trump decided to make what is arguably the most important foreign policy decision of his presidency so far – to meet with the leader of North Korea.

More reporting from Lederman:

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

Not even White House staff knew what was going on 

The reason it may seem like the North Korea announcement was hastily thrown together by the White House is because it was. It looked as though the president wanted to make the news public in a hurry to distract from other stories dominating the airwaves, from the Stormy Daniels controversy to the ongoing and increasingly explosive Russia investigation.

But in rushing to do this, it caught just about everybody off guard – not just the State Department, which is troubling enough, but also Trump’s White House staff.

On an issue as consequential and high-stakes as a meeting with North Korea, it’s important for the administration to be on the same page and speaking in one voice. Sadly, that’s not even close to what we’re seeing from this White House.


Copyright PoliticusUSA LLC 2008-2023